A friend stopped by the store yesterday. He had just returned from paddling Katmai, National Park in AK with three others. During the trip he said they counted 65 Grizzlies, many of them were roaming right through their camps. They made lots of noise and yelling as a group when that happened. The bears pretty much ignored them and went about their business of trying to raid their camp, clean out the empty brandy glasses with a tongue, test out the security of their bear containers for them, and even gently opening the cockpit cover of one kayak for a peek inside. They had a couple of cans of bear spray but never once used them, although they thought later that maybe they should have on one occasion. They wished they had purchased 4 cans of bear spray, one for each of them, rather than just two. I suspect, being "park bears" in a big park, that they aren't hunted at all and therefore have no serious fear of humans. I'll bet those bears would soon also become accustomed to "bear bangers" or any other non-painful items designed to frighten them off (especially if they start to be used regularly by human visitors with no subsequent consequences). Apparently flares hardly phase the bears, beyond quickly turning their heads to watch them whiz by. Years ago it used to be legal to carry firearms for bear protection in Alaska's National Parks, but apparently not any more. Does anybody know when the law changed on that, and what it is now? Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jun 18 2003 - 20:18:26 PDT
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